Aidonian's blog

Erebos, I want to praise You, You are the personification of the darkness and its Lord God of Darkness, Husband to Nyx, father of many Gods and daimones, You who surround Tartaros, to keep it apart from Elysium You who bring the peacefullnes of the darkness, absent of light, but also deliverer of evil things. Thanks to you I find peace and quiet in darkness, while also aware of the dangers it can pose. I want to honour You, God of Darkness. Its by gazing into the darkness, one learns who he really is. Its through the darkness, absense light, one is confronted by their true self.

Thank You, great God for your Help and Your gifts

This morning I lighted some candles and I thought there was also a Orphic hymn to Erebos, which there wasn’t. I found out when I started praying to Him. I prayed and meditated on Him after praying. Maybe dragon blood incense is a good offering to Him? I will try to offer it to Him.

Erebos is an obscure deity in the Hellenic pantheon. He is one of the Protogenoi, First-Born Gods that came after Khaos. He doesn’t really play a role in the myths. So far I know He doesn’t have a cult or anything.

Hesiod’ Theogony has this to say about Him:

“Verily at first Khaos (Chaos, the Gap) [Air] came to be, but next wide-bosomed Gaia (Gaea, Earth) . . . and dim Tartaros (the Pit) in the depth of the wide-pathed Earth, and Eros (Love), fairest among the deathless gods, who unnerves the limbs and overcomes the mind and wise counsels of all gods and all men within them.
From Khaos (Chaos) [Air] came forth Erebos (Erebus, Darkness) and black Nyx (Night); but of Nyx (Night) were born (Aether, Bright Upper Air) and Hemera (Day), whom she conceived and bore from union in love with Erebos.
And Gaia (Gaea, Earth) first bore starry Ouranos (Uranus, Heaven), equal to herself, to cover her on every side.”

Alongside Nyx, Hè is credited as the father of many Gods but also daimones as well. Like Tartaros, He is also considered the personification of the region in Hades. The Orphici had another version of the story.

Orphica, Theogonies Fragment 54 (from Damascius) (trans. West) (Greek hymns C3rd – C2nd B.C.) :
“Originally there was Hydros (Water), he [Orpheus] says, and Mud, from which Ge (Gaea, the Earth) solidified : he posits these two as first principles, water and earth . . . The one before the two [Thesis, Creation], however, he leaves unexpressed, his very silence being anintimation of its ineffable nature. The third principle [Khronos (Chronos), Time] after the two was engendered by these–Ge (Earth) and Hydros (Water), that is–and was a Serpent (Drakon) with extra heads growing upon it of a bull and a lion, and a god’s countenance in the middle; it had wings upon its shoulders, and its name was Khronos (Chronos, Unaging Time) and also Herakles (Heracles). United with it was Ananke (Inevitability, Compulsion), being of the same nature, or Adrastea, incorporeal, her arms extended throughout the universe and touching its extremities. I think this stands for the third principle, occuping the place of essence, only he [Orpheus] made it bisexual [as Phanes] to symbolize the universal generative cause. And I assume that the theology of the [Orphic] Rhapsodies discarded the two first principles (together with the one before the two, that was left unspoken) [i.e., the Orphics discarded the concepts of Thesis, Khronos and Ananke], and began from this third principle [Phanes] after the two, because this was the first that was expressible and acceptable to human ears. For this is the great Khronos (Unaging Time) that we found in it [the Rhapsodies], the father of Aither (Aether, Light) [upper air] and Khaos (Chaos, the Chasm) [lower air]. Indeed, in this theology too [the Hieronyman Rhapsodies], this Khronos (Time), the serpent has offspring, three in number : moist Aither (Aether, Light)–I quote–, unbounded Khaos (Chaos), and as a third, misty Erebos (Darkness) . . . Among these, he says, Khronos (Chronos, Time) generated an egg–this tradition too making it generated by Khronos, and born ‘among’ these because it is from these that the third Intelligible triad is produced [Protogonos-Phanes]. What is this triad, then? The egg; the dyad of the two natures inside it–male and female–[Ouranos (Uranus) and Gaia (Gaea), Heaven and Earth], and the plurality of the various seeds between; and thirdly an incorporeal god [Phanes] with golden wings on his shoulders, bulls’ heads growing upon his flanks, and on his head a monstrous serpent, presenting the appearance of all kinds of animal forms.”

Source

The Theoi Project